


The Watery Abyss

by Louffox



Category: Darkiplier - Fandom, Youtube RPF, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: FUCK THE OCEAN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 10:04:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10874502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louffox/pseuds/Louffox
Summary: Mark and Dark have an agreement. Two hours every two weeks. This is how to endure sharing a body without anyone getting hurt (much). And though they share a body, they really know little about each other- including not knowing each other's fears.





	The Watery Abyss

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my heavens it's been so long since I've posted anything. But this popped into my head yesterday so I wrote the entire thing on my phone in bed last night. I also was having an allergic reaction to something I'd gotten in my eyes and didn't know until a few hours later, so please forgive any typos. Not my fault. It's all because of phone writing and firey burning eyeballs.  
> (On the plus side, spending an entire night crying and icing my face and unable to even blink because closing my eyes hurt so much, but also can't keep them open because that hurt too and I couldn't see- maybe I'll be able to use the experience to write some sicknasty antisepticeye story or something. woo.)

Mark had gotten fairly used to Dark- he’d been around for ages, and by this point, Mark could keep a pretty tight leash on him. The interdimensional thought form really didn’t belong in Mark’s plane of reality. Sure, he could snag control for a few moments at a time by force, but he couldn’t maintain a presence on Mark’s plane for much longer than a few minutes.

 

Of course, Dark could get in a lot of trouble with a few minutes. It had been Tyler’s suggestion, actually, that Mark make a deal with him. Ever the smart and compromising one, Tyler proposed that Mark relinquish control for Dark every once and a while, every two weeks, for two hours at a time. So rather than struggling for an instant here or there, leaving Dark frustrated and likely to really cause a lot of havoc in those few moments, they both got a good deal. Dark didn’t kill anyone or do anything really crazy (that was more Wilford’s area anyways, all Dark wanted was control and power, he didn’t have any bloodlust, just power-lust) and Mark’s life maintained order.

 

Dark could get up to a lot of terror in two hours, and when Mark intentionally relinquished control, it was like he was asleep. So he didn’t know what Dark had done until after, when he could piece it together. He liked to go about the city, catch up on the news, check on his stocks and his political column published under a pseudonym. Once he’d gone and met a girl at a bar and engaged in some dom/sub activities, which Amy was very irritated about. Sometimes he would make a video. Mark liked this- it was productive and helpful for them both. Dark seemed to gain something from the support of the community, and Mark knew they all loved the creature. (What that said about his community, he wasn’t about to think on.)

 

And Kathryn usually kept an eye on Dark- she was inexplicably the only one that all egos obeyed. Mark asked her about it when he realized, and she had pointed a finger and told him to keep his nose out of other people’s business. He’d slunk away, a bit confused at his own obedience. It was reminiscent of Chica complying to a command. It was an oddly satisfying feeling.

 

Two hours every two weeks. It wasn’t perfect, but the made it work.

 

He had scheduled Dark for the afternoon, and was quite unhappy that it fell on such a spectacular day. The sun was bright and inviting, the sky unending blue, and the whole team was going to the beach. It was hard to not be sullen- a perfect day, and he wasn’t even going to get to enjoy it. Dark would get the sun and sky and sand and Chica for the day. Mark wanted to reschedule, but he knew it wouldn’t be worth the trouble he got in the long term for breaking their deal. Dark was many things, but he was fierce about honesty and keeping a promise.

 

So he called the team a bag of dicks for enjoying the day without him, and opened his mind to that other dimension, letting that other being take over.

 

\--

\--

 

Dark sank into the body like it was a hot bath. He met no resistance. Good. One day, Mark would break his promise, and Dark had such stunning things planned for that day, but that day wasn’t today. He was a little disappointed, but also certain that the day would come eventually. He could wait.

 

Mark’s body, with it’s limited three dimensional intractability, always needed a good shake to settle into. He shivered from his toes to his forehead, flexed his ten-fingered hands a few times, and then looked through his eyes to bear witness to the world.

 

“Dark?” Tyler asked. Dark nodded, and looked around a bit more. “We’re all going to the beach. We were hoping you’d come too.”

 

“I’ve never been to a beach,” Dark mused. “This would be a good experience. It is a nice place, yes?”

 

“It’s the best,” Tyler said. Dark looked over the group, and then noticed himself fully. He was clothed in Mark’s usual jeans and t-shirt, but the unusual part was beneath the jeans- he wasn’t wearing boxers, but some different type of shorts.  _ Swim trunks _ , Mark’s information cortex supplied. It was followed by an image of a beach, the place they were all going.

 

“Then I will go to the beach with you all,” Dark stated. Kathryn gave him two thumbs up from behind Tyler. Ethan and Amy paid him no mind- they usually didn’t. Dark stayed away from Amy ( _f_ _ or now- but rescind on your promise, Mark Edward Fischbach, and my kindness will discontinue _ ) but he liked to interact with Ethan. He obviously was extremely uncomfortable around him. Kathryn would sometimes snap at him and tell him to leave Ethan alone, and he would obey. His obedience to her was… peculiar.

 

“Is Chica coming as well?” Dark asked. She ran over and snuffled at his knee, tail wagging, and he scratched her ears. “Of course she’s coming. She’s the goodest. Good puppos get to be beach puppos! We wouldn’t leave you behind now, would we? Would we?” he crooned at her. She wagged her tail at him, and he was once again struck by how satisfying it was to be loved by a dog. So innocent. So sweet. If he had a heart, it would metaphorically melt.

 

When his control extended to every corner of this quiet rageless dimension, she would be at his side.

 

“Yeah! We took her for the first time a while ago and she loved it!” Tyler told him. He was an optimist and had revealed that he had created the covenant that Dark and Mark were engaged with, and often tried to treat Dark like a normal person. He seethed at it. But internally, of course. On the outside, he was ever polite, always poised and dignified. Control.

 

He fractured a bit, though. It was frustrating.

 

They all got in the car with Tyler driving, and everyone chatted and laughed and sang with the radio as they drove. Dark simply drank it all in, absorbing it all, in case a tidbit became useful eventually. He watched the city pass and memorized that as well. He didn't get out as much as he liked and was still trying to map the city.

 

It seemed to take ages to get to the beach. By the time they arrived, his time was a third gone. Irritating. But he was determined to stay close to Mark’s group and observe them, and to understand how their world worked. Study, research, learn.

 

When they arrived, they all assisted each other with the carrying. The beach was a bit down a street and they would have to approach the last quarter mile on foot. From the vantage point of the parking lot, a bit higher than the beach, Dark could see the appeal. It was a more private and expensive beach, not on most tourist maps, and was only lightly populated. The sand was an attractive warm beige, the ocean blue and inviting.

 

Tyler put a cooler in his arms. His face remained impassive, but he knew Tyler noticed his irritation.

 

“If you want to join us, you help too,” Tyler said firmly. Amy had Chica on her leash and had a small bag of towels, Kathryn had another bag of towels, Tyler had a cooler as well, and Ethan had another small bag and some floats.

 

Everyone took their shoes off once they got off the tar and onto the boardwalk, and Dark set down his cooler to remove his flip flops as well. Ethan accepted them all into his small bag, avoiding eye contact with Dark as he did. Dark put on Mark’s biggest smile, and Ethan skirted away.

 

Dark had traveled to several dimensions but had never found the rumored eternal paradise. This was quite close.

 

The sand was hot and cupped his feet, the sky seemed endless, the horizon a distant barely seen line where blue sky met blue seas. The sound of the waves and the cries of the gulls were welcoming, and the very air was salted and rich.

 

Dark… admittedly, his contr slipped a bit. He enjoyed himself like a human would- with cold lemonade and volleyball and sunglasses selfies. They threw a frisbee for each other and for Chica, and finally Tyler sent it skipping into the waves. Chica pursued it with earnest single-minded determination, and Dark couldn't help but splash in behind her. He was warm from the sun and had long since dressed down to his swim trunks.

 

The ocean.

The  _ ocean _ .

 

It was cool and had a faintly different texture to it, but was a thousand times better than a swimming in an artificial body of water. The ocean was constantly in motion, like a lulling caress that invited him in further. It tugged at his legs and fingertips, like a live thing. The sand under his toes was silken and plush.

 

He charged further in. Further. He was no longer charging, he was swimming. The water was buoyant and seemed to pull him farther.

 

He had no heart- not physically nor metaphorically- and love was a concept of this dimension, not something he was capable of.

 

But.

 

He had fallen in love with the ocean.

 

He swam back to bring Chica to the others, and went back in. Out to observe the peculiar dark vegetation of the ocean- seaweed and kelp- and out to where the bottom was gone and it was dark and deep and infinite beneath his paddling feet. He felt a connection to this strange entity- the ocean- unlike anything he had ever experienced in his entire existence. 

 

He swam and explored and swam.

 

Control and plans for power were the last things on his mind. He was a being of pure enjoyment. Splashing and swimming and walking about in the ocean like a human, and careless of it all.

 

It was perfect. He felt welcomed. He felt belonging. He felt-

 

\--

\--

 

Mark came back to himself quickly, and choked for a moment.

 

He was choking?

 

Water.

 

He pressed his body up, breaching the surface. Air. He pulled it into his lungs greedily, treading water. Good thing he was a strong swimmer. His muscles already felt fatigued, as if-

 

He nearly screamed.

 

He was far out in the ocean, the shore impossibly far, the water dark and unknowing beneath him. 

 

He didn't scream, but instead pulled in a sharp breath, a gasp so thin it nearly was a scream after all. With it came water, and he coughed and sputtered.

 

Every instinct screamed to pull his toes away from that black pit below. His imagination supplied images of pale blind things and serpents swimming and nipping his feet, and wet rippling things and big eyes things, and everything he really didn't want to touch.

 

_ They could be touching me right now. Or about to touch me. _

 

He struck out for the shore as fast as he could.

 

_ Oh god oh god oh god  _

 

Something was probably about to touch him. He was barely covering any ground and there were almost certainly things under him, and the salt burned at his eyes.

 

He wanted to sob. He wanted to be up and away from that dark abyss. He wanted to kick Dark in the head.

 

When he got to the shore, he crawled. His muscles were burned out and he just wanted something to rinse the taste of ocean salt from his mouth.

 

Chica had run to him and was snuffling at his face. He grabbed her and pulled her close clumsily, mindless of her wet fur. He was trembling so hard.

 

She squirmed, but he held her and made soft noises at her, soothing both her and himself.

 

He was fine. Land. He was safe. Ground beneath him, no more unseen deep creatures, no more waves pulling him out to the abyss.

 

“You alright?”

 

He hadn't noticed Tyler approach, and he swung at him, knuckles connecting with his shoulder.

 

“Fuck you guys. That wasn't funny,” he said, muffled in Chica’s fur.

 

“What?”

 

“I'm not fucking buying your fucking innocent act. I fucking hate you.”

 

“I honestly don't know what you're talking about.”

 

Mark glared at him. The prick had to make him say it? “The ocean. I'm fucking- I hate the ocean. “

 

Dawning, then horror, then amusement crosses Tyler’s face before it settled on chagrin. “Oh. Oh shit, I forgot.” 

 

“Fuck you,” Mark repeated, pressing his face back into Chica’s fur. 

 

Eventually, he came out of that state of fear-anger, but it took a detour to his favorite ice cream parlor, and Chica had to sit on his lap the whole ride back.

 

Fucking Dark.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a bit rough, but I'm happy with it. My main headcannons that inspired:  
> -Dark LOVES the ocean  
> -Dark LOVES Chica  
> -Kathryn is powerful and is the only person who can order any and all of the egos around. Like she's got a superpower that's like dog trainer extraordinaire but instead of dogs it's people. DARK. SIT. STAY. GOOD BOY.  
> -Tyler is a ray of sunshine that punches through any clouds in his way  
> -Amy avoids Dark because she fears that Mark would get jealous of the asshole. Even though he wears Mark's handsome face, she doesn't think he's even a little handsome. She's not afraid of him in the least, she just really hates him.  
> -Ethan is a really trusting guy and Dark likes to exploit that, and he's really self conscious of it, even though it's a trait to be admired.
> 
> Anyways. I'm a bit more able to write nowadays so if anyone has any neat prompts, feel free to comment them- if I write it, I'll be sure to let you know. I want to start writing again! I just gotta get the creative juices flowing again.


End file.
